Long, enjoyable VMS visit.

Ensure the cow enjoys the “entire milking session” in the VMS.

Take the feed rate into account; ensure she hasn’t finished her portion before milking starts, so what is the feed rate per minute set to?

Depending on amount concentrates, max 0.30 – 0.40 kg per minute.

And is she still entitled to a reasonable portion at the last milking session?

That means the maximum portion per milking session should not be set too high.
Depending on the ration at the feed barrier: 2.00 – 3.00 kg maximum.

Does she really hate the teatcleaning? If she is clean enough, the pre-treatment can be set lighter. For example, with new heifers.
(Standard setting remains best for clean teats and oxytocin!)

Is the walk-in gate not too tight, and is the feed trough in the VMS in the correct position? Is the cow standing relaxed?

Does she have to make strange turn before or after robot? => Rubber mat / grates.

Are certain pipes or fences very smooth and clean in places, while others are dirty? Why?

Is this due to the cows’ walking route or perhaps grounding?

Cow Traffic Score.

Do you think (some of) your cows could use the robot / feed fence more often?

During my farm visits, I often use the 10-point score:
Your cow gets 10 points.
If she’s not walking very well, we deduct 2-5 points, depending on the severity.

If there’s little space around the robot to get in or the robot is too crowded, we deduct another points.
If the basic ration doesn’t taste good, or she’s on the verge of rumen acidosis, we deduct another 2-5 points.

If the robot isn’t milking optimally, or if parts are worn, etc., we deduct another point.

There are other factors, such as illness, bedding comfort, and routing, that can result in (penalty) points.

The fewer deduction points the better!

How many points do your (collected) cows have left?

This method can provide insight into assessing your cows’ robot visits.

Shut down and restart the robots and computer regularly.

We know it’s good to completely shut down and restart the robot(s) and computer occasionally. We know that’s good, but when do we do it?

A technician advised using that moment to shut down everything when replacing the teat liners. This way, it happens regularly and takes almost no time!

Make sure you give the system time to drain all (leakage) power.

Heifers learn to visit the VMS faster.

Another handy tip from a technician.

We regularly discuss here how important it is for newly lactating cows, and especially heifers, to learn to visit the VMS independently quickly after calving.

Because we can now divide lactation into five periods in the Automatic Milk Permission, it’s also possible to use the first period for newly calved heifers, for example, the first 20 days after calving. Use the same setting as the second period (from 5 hours and/or 7-9 kg expected milk yield), but let them enter the red zone after just 8 hours. For 2+ lactations, if there are no real problems, this would only be necessary for the first 10 days.

This way, newly calved animals are immediately identified if they need more time to learn or if they are experiencing other issues.

The sooner after calving you exceed 3 milkings per day, the better the lactation and udder health!!